Gov. Chris Christie formally notified the Senate this week he’ll be nominating two new Superior Court judges — one from Christie’s political backyard, the other from Senate President Stephen Sweeney’s.

The new judges would be Michael Hubner of Pompton Plains, a law partner of Assm. Anthony Bucco’s, whose law firm is employed by a number of local governments in North Jersey, and Timothy Chell of Sewell, who has been mayor of Mantua for 11 years and at times identified as counsel for the Gloucester County Democrats.

Hubner is a partner in Johnson, Murphy, Hubner, McKeon, Wubbenhorst, Bucco & Appelt, P.C., a law firm in Riverdale that received more than $1.2 million from public contracts last year. The legal services exceeded $100,000 each for Livingston, Roxbury, Montville, Morris County, Pequannock, as well as smaller amounts from 18 other government entities.

Michael Hubner

Hubner is the longtime township attorney for Pequannock and has been designated as a special counsel for Morris County since the early 1990s — a stint that predated but included Christie’s three years on the Morris County freeholder board from 1995 through 1997.

Chell has been on the Mantua Township Council since 1997 and was selected by colleagues as mayor for 11 straight years. He dropped a bid for re-election this past summer but said it was unrelated to his pending judgeship. He is the municipal solicitor for East Greenwich, Swedesboro and Washington Township and is municipal prosecutor in Glassboro.

A full story was in the Daily Record and Courier Post today and probably will appear in Gannett’s other New Jersey papers over the weekend.

Comments

About Michael Symons

Michael Symons has covered seven governors while working in Gannett's Statehouse Bureau -- a stint which actually only stretches back to 2000, but the door revolves quickly in New Jersey politics. He's co-author of the biography "Chris Christie: The Inside Story of His Rise to Power."

All judges in New Jersey should be directly elected by the voters themselves. Once on the bench, all judges, including state Supreme Court justices, should have to face the voters in periodic retention votes.

Everyone is staying on the bench? No one new? Well we might as well just go ahead and give up and any chance of ever turning this state around. The Judges we have now do nothing but dictate law from the bench and we don’t have a Governor or and representative in the Senate or Assembly that would ever dare to call them out on the Constitution. Everyone fall to their knees and worship the King.

I’m afraid I have to echo the above comments, omitting the 4-letter word–although it does fit. It definitely looks like old-fashioned payback from Christie to a buddy and to Sen. Sweeney for a few legislative concessions in the past year.
Thanks to Bob Jordan for reporting this continuing bad news. We, the voters and taxpayers have no voice in this government, and it’s tragic for NJ and us.
Barbara

About the Authors

Bob JordanBob Jordan has covered state, county and muncipal governments for the past 10 years. He has also covered the gaming industry and has been a sports team beat writer for NHL, NBA and major league baseball teams.E-mail Bob

John SchoonejongenJohn Schoonejongen is state editor for Gannett New Jersey newspapers. He has reported and edited at New Jersey newspapers from Salem County to Passaic County, writing about everything from state politics to lost pigs on the Delaware Memorial Bridge. Born in Camden County, he still speaks with a southern New Jersey accent, much to his wife's annoyance.E-mail John

Michael SymonsMichael Symons has covered seven governors while working in Gannett's Statehouse Bureau -- a stint which actually only stretches back to 2000, but the door revolves quickly in New Jersey politics. He's co-author of the biography "Chris Christie: The Inside Story of His Rise to Power."E-mail Michael